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Tales of a bank survivor

Little did Jack Shubitowski know what was in store when he left Flint-based Citizens Bank in 2007 to take over as president and CEO of Milford-based Huron Valley State Bank. It was a boom time for community banks — a handful recently had opened in Southeast Michigan, and five more were scheduled to open in 2006. Huron Valley had opened in August 2005 and was 55 percent owned by Clarkston Financial Corp. A year later, Clarkston, under financial pressure from commercial loans gone bad, sold its share of Huron Valley. Many of the area's community banks were in a death spiral. Crain's reporter Tom Henderson talked with Shubitowski about what happened next.

When I inherited the banking beat at Crain's in 2005, I remember one community banker told me, "Tom, owning a community bank is a license to print money." Those days changed fast.

They sure did. We aren't printing any.

As a new bank, you weren't saddled with a lot of bad loans. Still, it was big news when you got back in the black at the end of 2009.

We've had four profitable years now. We're pretty excited about that.

You've added a second branch on M-59 and consolidated your lenders into downtown Milford. Any expansion plans?

No brick-and-mortar for now. We're expanding our commercial lending. We're doing more Small Business Administration loans. The residential lending market in Milford has bounced right back. We're doing home equity loans again. Deposits are up 17 percent in a year. We're at $92 million in assets and growing. We hope to hit $100 million next year when we have our 10th anniversary.

Industry observers say consolidation will continue to be a theme in banking. Are you looking to either be a buyer or seller?

That is a big topic of conversation. There are no immediate plans to merge. When you talk to bankers, the topic always comes up. If we continue to grow and be profitable and remain well-capitalized, we can remain independent. You have to keep shareholders happy.

Any other news?

We just had a strategic planning session. We're forming a holding company. It's a five- or six-month process. You can take on debt on a holding-company level that looks like capital at the bank level. The holding company can have shares authorized that can be used as employee or director compensation and which can be used as currency in the event of an acquisition.